Recapturing the past: Ayesha Antoine (Black Woman) and Kingsley Ben-Adir (Black Man).
Play: We Are Proud to Present A Presentation About the Herero of Namibia, Formerly Known as Southwest Africa, From the German Sudwestafrika, Between the Years 1884-1915
Theatre: Bush Theatre
Playwright: Jackie Sibblies Drury
Director: Gbolahan Obisesan
Brooklyn playwright Jackie Sibblies Drury has adapted her critically acclaimed play We Are Proud to Present to suit a British audience for its European premier at the Bush Theatre.
Tackling the devastating reality of what is believed to be the first genocide of the 20th century against the Herero people in German South-West Africa (now Namibia), We Are Proud to Present grapples with a complex history.
In the play this mammoth task falls to an amateur ensemble of British actors who want to recreate this shameful piece of history artistically, but are unsure as to how. They opt for an “overview presentation” on the genocide of the Herero people – 8 out of 10 of whom were massacred during Germany’s colonial rule.
Coming across like a group of six attention seeking Cbeebies presenters, the three white and three black actors race through a crude, unexpectedly humorous and abridged retelling of the aggressive colonisation of South-West Africa.
Despite the cheap props, ropey sound effects and heaps of misguided enthusiasm, the brutality of the German occupation is undeniable. None of the actors are called by name, only by their colour and gender – black man, white woman.
With the presentation falling way short of the self appointed artistic director’s ambitions (an arresting Ayesha Antoine), the actors turn their attention to a collection of letters, written by the German soldiers, for inspiration – with mixed results.
Black Man (Kingsley Ben-Adir, an actor to watch) is unhappy with this turn of events. He feels focusing on the letters, filled with longing for home and wives, excludes the Herero people’s experience. “Are we going to sit here watching white people fall in love all day?”
White Man (Joseph Arkley) is uncomfortable with fictionalising the soldiers’ stories while Another White Man (Joshua Hill in an assured professional stage debut) embellishes the tales and is desperate to be centre stage.
Although they agree not to do accents, they fall in and out of different dialects, from American and Irish to Jamaican patois and Afrikaans, a possible nod by Sibblies to the fact that genocide and racial oppression is a dirty stain in many countries’ histories.
As the production progresses, a tug of war grows between the actors over whose story should be told (the German soldiers or the Herero people), what’s fact and fiction (“With the Holocaust, we have documents, we have testimonials …”), racial accuracy and acting styles. The increasing unrest among the actors creates a racial divide, culminating in one of the most arresting and unsettling moments of the uneven play.
Director Gbolahan Obisesan keeps our attention squarely on the actors. The set is sparse featuring a basic outline of the map of Namibia, reminiscent of an outline of a dead body in a 1970s cop show. This floor map is divided into pieces, like a jigsaw puzzle. As each section is removed, desert sand is revealed reflecting the country’s hot dry terrain and the cast’s attempt to get underneath the story’s skin.
Sibblies tries to weave the past into the present, showing how we all unconsciously carry stereotypes that keep us divided from each other. As the exasperated artistic director says, all she wants to do is to make the story “real”. Unfortunately, the first half of We Are Proud to Present doesn’t feel real. Instead it feels repetitive and self conscious, and takes time to build momentum. There are the occasional sparkling moments, like when the actors argue about whether or not to use accents, when you feel like you are peeping into a rehearsal room.
What does work is Sibblies use of humour to intelligently unmask prejudice and hypocrisy. This is when the cast come alive, particularly Kirsty Oswald’s narcissistic White Woman who constantly searches for her character’s motivation. “I don’t know what my active verb is.”
In the wake of the hugely successful 12 Years a Slave, the history of black people’s colonial mistreatment is getting the overdue attention it deserves through the arts. Like Steve McQueen and Solomon Northup, Sibblies has taken the once buried story of the Herero people and given it creative life. A good enough reason to see this play.
We Are Proud to Present a Presentation About the Herero of Namibia, Formerly Known as Southwest Africa, From the German Sudwestafrika, Between the Years 1884 – 1915 is at the Bush Theatre until Saturday 12 April 2014.